What makes Israel difficult are the internal conflicts. Ashkenazi versus  Sephardi. Religious versus secular, etc. These conflicts are not intellectual but play themselves out on the ground level. Any one of one group that ventures into an area of the other group is guaranteed to find himself the focus of lots of attention and effort to get rid of him. These efforts are sometimes simple shunning of lack of being helpful. Sometimes these efforts are less veiled and amount to downright sabotage of one's welling place or actual physical violence.
Then on the other hand there are the occasional do good-ers who realize that this kind of thing often results in throwing out the wrong kind of people-people that in fact would be good to have around.

[This is not to say that sometimes it is  a good idea to get rid of criminal elements.]

The result of all this is often when one is making "Aliya" he finds himself in an unexpected situation where people he thought were his friends [and in fact when they came to the USA to collect money always presented themselves as his best friends] turn out to be his most bitter and determined enemies.
[It is hard to know what to make of all this. The nicest period I had was when I was invited to join Rav Ernster. He had been offered by the State of Israel a set of buildings --on condition he could fill them. So I was invited to live there and join the learning group. That was a really glorious seven years. Later attempts to make it there fell flat and were somewhat disastrous also. I was a loner and people made it clear in short order that I was not wanted.]

Outside of the great Ponoviz yeshiva  and maybe  few other places like the Yeshiva of the Gra of Rav Silverman, the main problem in Israelis simple. The religious are insane. I mean literally insane.

Of course just being insane as long as one does not harm others is not so terrible. The trouble is the religious do as much harm as they can.

learning Gemara and Naphtali Yeager in Shar Yashuv [NY]

I realize there are two ways of learning Gemara.  One way really started with Naphtali Yeager in Shar Yashuv [NY] which is for lack of  a better word "the hedgehog approach." This is very recent, but I imagine it goes back to some distant beginning, but was forgotten. It is a kind of tenacious putting your nose to the ground, and once you grab something, not to let go--no matter what.
The other way is well known. It is the eagle approach. Or what I like to call the global approach. This is called by the name of Reb Haim [Soloveitchik], but it also goes back in time to previous beginnings. It reached it climax and peak perfection in the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach. Some people I imagine still think the Reb Haim is better than Rav Shach, but I just can not see that.
The first approach I had almost completely forgotten about until I encountered it again in David Bronson. [It forms the basis of my book on Bava Metzia.] I have no idea if anyone else in the world learns like that, but I have heard that some people do (here and there), and they call it לחשבן את הסוגיא "to calculate the subject."

How does either of these two approaches have anything to so with Rishonim (mediaeval authorities) or "later on" people [later on means after circa 1520] like the Pnei Yehoshua or  the Kezot HaHoshen, I do not know. I was exposed to all four approaches, and yet never really got the hang of it. The people that come after the Rishonim {mediaeval commentaries} seem to occupy their own particular niche. Certainly you can see a big difference between the Pnei Yehoshua and the book חידושי הרמב''ם of Reb Haim.
Though I found the slow prodding approach of Naftali Yegger and David Bronson to be excruciating, I still think it has the most going for it. [In the Mir in NY, the hedgehog approach was completely unknown.They were all absolutely into the "global approach." Only in Israel did I hear that in some isolated spots the "to calculate the sugia" path was known and practiced.

You might ask then what does this all mean in practice? I would have to answer the the "to calculate the sugia" approach-the hedgehog, needs a high IQ. Since I am not smart, then without a genius leaning partner, it just is not possible. The best idea after that is the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach and the entire school of Reb Haim, that is him and his disciples. [Even my book on Bava Metzia is just answering questions raised by David Bronson, but I never would have been able to see the issues at all without his raising the difficulties. ]


[What one might do is this. To get the book of Reb Haim Soloveitchik and the Avi Ezri and Naftali Troup and just go through them straight.  In a separate session to just go through the Gemara  itself with Tosphot, Maharsha and Pnei Yehoshua.. ]

The Civil War

To me, the war between the states [the Civil War] is a very important part of American history because its tells me a lot more about the USA than the Constitution or any other part of USA history. To erase it means to erase half of the core principles  of the USA.

My basic idea about the USA come from history before the founding fathers. That is the way I conceive of it. I mean I look at the war between Sparta and Athens and realize how tragic that was. Then I look at Rome. Then England in the 1700's. I see in all this- conflicting principles each one important in itself yet when put together they all conflict. Then I look at the USA Constitution and realize the effort put into it to get a synthesis between conflicting principles. But to see the results I look at the civil war to understand what happens when the synthesis falls apart.

I may not be explaining this properly but I am just trying to give a rough idea of how I think of the USA.

[There are a great deal of principles and ideals that go into the making of the USA Constitution. The most important idea comes from the Talmud--the idea that the commandments have reasons that are known and knowable. Natural Law. Though never said openly in the Talmud in that many words, it was expressed simply thus by Saadia Gaon and Maimonides. Thomas Aquinas developed this further. Finally  John Locke came along and Parliamentary system in England with its own range of disastrous civil wars and conflicts. So to put all the ideas into a workable system I see as one of the most remarkable successes  in Human history. ]


[The odd thing here is that the philosophical foundations of Aquinas and John Locke a a bit weak. Aquinas as all medieval  thought take things as axioms that just do not see right. John Locke also. The obvious thing to do would be to look at more rigorous and exact philosophical thought--the German Idealists. But that does not seem to get very far. The puzzle is this: Why does the USA system work, and not just work but seem to work a thousand times better than anything else. Even though other systems seem to be base on much more exact and rigorous thought?  ]

Not that Marx was all that rigorous.The best thing in terms of Philosophy is the Kant Friesian school based on Kant and Leonard Nelson and that is certainly supportive of American Democracy and individual rights.

However to me everything seems to depend on DNA. I simply can not see that a USA kind of democracy would have been able to deal with the problems in czarist Russia. Nor in any population with a large percentage of criminal DNA. For societies that are not WASP, clearly something else is need to keep the peace. To me it is clear  that nothing would have or could have worked in Russia except a czar or the USSR. Nothing even close to the American system could have or can work. The trouble is simple. Too many crooks. When there there just too much criminal DNA in the blood,  you need an absolutist central government.

Hell, or Gehinom. [A great deal of human activity is to get distracted from the all important subject of Hell. That almost everything of what goes on in the world are tricks from the Sitra Akra/Dark Side to distract people from what really matters.]

גהינום Gehinom is really a very important subject. After all eternity is a long time to be tormented by demons in hell. Especially for people like me that have a low tolerance for pain. I must have mentioned once before my basic idea of Gehinom [hell]  and how to avoid it mainly comes from Reb Israel Salanter and his disciple Rav Isaac Blazzer. In one word it can all be summed up : Midot.

"Midot" means basically what my parents meant by the words "to be a mench." The basic idea is rather simple. Do not lie, do not cheat and do not steal.

[In high school I saw the same idea in one of my favorite books, Dante (The Divine Comedy ), who lays out the structure of Hell quite clearly. Later I saw the same basic idea in the very great  Musar book ראשית חכמה [Beginning of Wisdom]. [In the back in the additions, not in the book itself.]

In any case the idea is incredibly simple --have good traits--or else suffer the consequences.
And I have to add that in fact you can see this by implication in the Rambam. He gives the basic reasons for the commandments of Torah, and one is "midot" (to have good traits). The implication is that  what is going to matter in the long run--when one arrives at the seat of judgement in Heaven. What is going to matter then is not how strict one was in rituals whose only purpose is to remind one to have good traits. What is going to matter is midot tovot (good traits).
[A great deal of human activity is to get distracted from the all important subject of Hell. That almost everything of what goes on in the world are tricks from the Sitra Akra/Dark Side to distract people from what really matters.]

Even though keeping Torah is very important, I still feel once in a while to warn people about the religious world which pretends to keep Torah, but in fact is quite opposite to Torah.  A few words of warning I guess ought to suffice since this is not a very happy subject for me. Still the warning still is written in Torah, אל תעמוד על דמך רעיך. [Thou shalt not stand by as the blood of your neighbor is split.]

Which amazingly enough is in the same context as the commandment not to speak lashon hara/slander. The obvious implication is sometimes you need to warn people about some unknown danger even though it might seem to be lashon hara. (That is n my mind the reason for the signature of the Gra on the letter of excommunication.)

So  run from any group that  displays its religiosity. The more they appear religious, the worse they are.

If they display religiosity or claim religious authority, you know something is rotten in them that is just waiting  to crawl out of them and attach itself to you.

Background -to Rabbainu. Tam twilight starts 58.5 minutes after sunset and night 72 min. The morning is the same. dawn עלות השחר is 72 min., and נץ החמה is an hour before sunrise.
The Gemara in Shabat has a long description of how the sky changes at the beginning of the night. The way the Gemara describes it makes no sense if you think the night starts at 13.5 minutes after sundown. There are then no changes in the sky that the Gemara talks about.. But if you think like Rabbainu Tam, the Gemara makes perfect sense as you can see by this coming paragraph which I wrote having in mind an audience of people that know the Gemara in Shabat.




I was in Israel a few years and  I saw something that confirmed the approach of ר''ת concerning the time the night starts. That is, for the first 59 minutes after sunset, nothing dramatic changes in the sky. The sky  becomes  dark. Then right at 59 minutes something dramatic happens. A kind of dome forms over the area where the sun went down. Then that dome itself begins to sink until at exactly 72 minutes it sinks below the horizon, and the sky is dark. You can see how this corresponds to the גמרא in שבת. There is also something about what you call average. The word average has no meaning except as compared to something else. Thus the number 5 is average between 0 and 10, but not average compared to 100 and 1,000,000. So to be able to determine or measure what is an average star you need to see what all stars in the middle of the night. Once you see all the stars that can be seen by the naked eye, then you pick three medium stars. Then you learn how to identify them by learning thoroughly the map of the sky. One needs to learn to identify the constellations and the place of each star in a constellation. Then after you know what is a medium star, you go out and see on some night when it becomes visible. Three are visible at 72 minutes.

However stars that are seen a half hour after sunset when you compare them with other stars in the middle of the night are not medium stars. They are giants compared to all the others. They are what the גמרא calls large stars. Large stars do not tell you when the night begins. Only three medium stars.
In terms of stars, I also saw something there and also in desert regions in Israel. No stars are seen at sunset. None. So if twilight begins at sunset, where are the two medium stars? According to the גמרא, twilight begins when one average star is seen, not large stars which can be seen before then. So it is curious that at sunset, no large large stars, nor average stars are visible. That seems to knock the idea of בין השמשות  beginning at that time.

הייתי בישראל כמה שנים וראיתי משהו שאישר את הגישה של ר''ת בדבר הזמן שמתחיל הלילה. כלומר, עבור 59 הדקות הראשונות לאחר השקיעה, אין שינויים דרמטיים בשמים. השמים הופכים כהים. ואז ב59 דקות קורה משהו דרמטי. סוג של צורות כיפה נעשה מעל האזור שבו שקעה החמה. ואז כי הכיפה עצמה מתחילה לשקוע עד בדיוק 72 דקות הוא שוקע מתחת לאופק, והשמים כהים לגמרי. אתה יכול לראות איך זה מתאים לגמרא בשבת. יש גם משהו על מה שאתה קורא ממוצע. למילה "ממוצע" אין שום משמעות מלבד לעומת משהו אחר. לכן מספר 5 הוא ממוצע בין 0 ו10, אבל לא ממוצע לעומת 100 ו1,000,000. אז כדי להיות מסוגל לקבוע או למדוד מהו כוכב ממוצע אתה צריך לראות כל הכוכבים באמצע הלילה. ברגע שאתה רואה את כל הכוכבים שניתן לראות בעין בלתי מזוינת, אז אתה בוחר שלושה כוכבים ממוצעים. אז אתה לומד לזהות אותם על ידי לימוד יסודי של מפת השמים. אחד צריך ללמוד לזהות את הכוכבים ואת המקום של כל כוכב בקונסטלציה. ואז אחרי שאתה יודע מה הוא כוכב בינוני, אתה יוצא לראות באיזה לילה כאשר הוא הופך להיות גלוי. שלושה גלויים ב72 דקות. עם זאת, הכוכבים שנראים חצי שעה אחרי השקיעה, כאשר אתה משווה אותם עם כוכבים אחרים באמצע הלילה הם לא כוכבים ממוצעים. הם ענקים לעומת כל האחרים. הם מה שהגמרא קוראה כוכבים גדולים. כוכבים גדולים לא אומרים לך כאשר הלילה מתחיל. רק שלושה כוכבים ממוצעים. במונחים של כוכבים, ראיתי גם משהו שם גם באזורים מדבריים בישראל. אין כוכבים נראים בשקיעה. אף אחד. אז אם בין השמשות מתחיל בשקיעה, איפה הם שני כוכבים בינוניים? על פי הגמרא, בין השמשות מתחיל כאשר כוכב ממוצע אחד נראה, לא כוכבים גדולים אשר ניתן לראות לפני כן. אז זה מעניין כי בשקיעה, אין כוכבים גדולים, ולא כוכבים ממוצעים גלויים. זה סותר את הרעיון שבין השמשות מתחיל באותה עת.. הרדב"ז (דוד בן זימרא) כתב שהדעת בפסחים התקיימה לפני שחכמי ישראל הסכימו עם חכמי אתונה. בתחילה החזיק חכמי ישראל השמש בשקיעה נכנס לפרוזדור ואחר כך בלילה עולה מעל השמים. החכמים מאתונה החזיקו שהשמש הולכת מתחת לכדור הארץ בלילה. הדעה על משך הזמן שבין שקיעת החמה הראשונה ללילה שהיא ארבעה מיל הוא על סמך הדעה של חכמי ישראל בטרם ששינו את דעתם.

I was in Safed a few years and made it a point to be near the grave of Rav Isaac Luria around sunset.

And pretty much every day I saw something that confirmed the approach of Rabbainu Tam concerning the time the night starts.

That is for the first 59 minutes after sunset, nothing dramatic changes in the sky except for it slowly getting  darker. Then right at 59 minutes something dramatic happens. A kind of dome forms over the area where the sun went down. Then that dome itself begins to sink until at exactly 72 minutes it sink below the horizon and the sky is consistently dark. [You can see how this corresponds to the Gemara in Shabat.]


There is also something about what you call "medium." The word medium has no meaning except as compared to something else. This the number 5 is medium between 0 an 10 but not medium compared to 100 and 1000000. So to be able to gauge what is a medium star you need to first get an idea of what all stars look like in the middle of the night. Once you see all the stars that can be seen by the naked eye, then you pick three medium stars. Then you learn how to identify them by learning thoroughly the map of the sky. That is to learn to identify the constellations and the place of each star in a constellation. Then after you know what is a medium star, you go out and see on some night when it becomes visible. Three are visible at 72 minutes.
However stars that are seen a half hour after sunset when you compare them with other stars in the middle of the night are not medium stars. They are giants compared to all the others. They are what the Gemara calls large stars. Large stars do not tell you when the night begins. Only three medium stars.



In terms of stars I also saw something there and also in desert regions in Israel. No stars are seen at sunset. None. So if twilight begins at sunset, where are the two medium stars? According to the Gemara twilight begins when one medium star is seen, not large stars which can be seen before then. So it is curious that at sunset no large large stars, nor medium stars are visible. That seems to knock the idea of twilight beginning at that time.